The roof of the building that housed several businesses gave way to the pouring rain

Leah Anaya
For Clark County Today

Several Battle Ground businesses received severe damage during the thunderstorm Monday evening due to serious leaking through the roof and ceilings. While it was predicted to be a chance of thunderstorms at the time, there was little warning of the major downpour of rainfall during the relatively brief storm. The roof connected several businesses in the Wilco parking lot – located at 815 W. Main St. – including Main Street Floral, Inkability, Battle Ground Martial Arts Academy, The Studio Dance Company, and Legions Realty.

The roof was being repaired by A+ Construction at the time the rain started. According to business owners renting offices in the building, the repairs were long overdue. This reporter overheard the damage being called an “act of God” by the contractor, who rushed to help the businesses move and/or cover their belongings. 

Shannon Wyman is the property manager of the building and also a renter of part of its office space for Legions Realty, which was also severely damaged. She said that the contractor, known only as Brandon, and his team stayed at the location until midnight Monday covering the roof with tarps on the off chance there was another storm, and then showed up at 6 a.m. Tuesday morning to get fans blowing on the water damage.

The flash flooding itself may have been an act of God, but renters in the building painted a different picture of the possibility that the interior damage could potentially have been avoided.

One business owner told Clark County Today that they had been asking for roof repair due to leaking in the building for close to five years. 

“They would send people out to do a quick cover-up type of fix, but that was it,’’ said the business owner. “I called so many times in the last few months especially because every single time it rained, we would have water leaking down our walls. And I would get the same answer: we have to wait until the weather clears. Which I understand, but that would not have been the case if it would have been handled when the weather was cleared last season. Or the season before that. Or before that…”

Main Street Floral’s portion of the roof was mostly completed when the downpour started. The flashing, meant to divert rainwater from certain areas like vents and the HVAC system, however, had not been installed. That was said to be the cause of the leaking inside the store and other offices. Customers are not being allowed to enter the building as it is still not labeled as safe, but business owner Marilyn Schweizer has been communicative on Facebook and other outlets to let people know that if they have already placed an order, specifically for prom and funerals, they will make sure they are able to get those orders filled.

In a series of now-deleted Facebook live posts, Main Street owner Marilyn Schweizer detailed the damage done to her store while expressing concern over who would be paying for the damage. She said she wasn’t sure the building owners would “do the right thing.” In one such video, she said, “There’s a lot of conflict over who’s doing what and who’s in charge of this and who’s responsible for this, so right now we’re really just focused on trying to sort things out and trying to get some answers from the property owners so that we know and have a better understanding as to what’s gonna be happening.” 

Schweizer also said that while the property owners were on scene following the devastation, they “said nothing to any of us. This is disheartening to say the least.”

Wyman addressed several negative comments left on one of Main Street Floral’s posts regarding the contractors. “Brandon is not the bad guy here,” Wyman said of the contractor. “He didn’t make the rain come. He did everything he could to help once it started and he feels terrible. I told him there’s nothing he could have done to change the outcome.” 

Main Street Floral also addressed the comments, saying, “have some compassion. Don’t kick someone when their [sic] already down. Do better. The world needs less of that and more positive encouragement.”

Inkability suffered damage inside as well, with boxes of papers having been destroyed by water damage. “The smell when we came inside this morning,” said owner Kendra Laratta, “was awful. It’s aired out some now, but it was just so musty. We were able to move out several of our big printers and we covered a lot of the things that hadn’t already been damaged.” 

Laratta also said that there are several orders pending and she is going to try her hardest to get them all completed but will not be able to take on new orders for an unknown amount of time.

The most damage was done to The Studio Dance Company, where children were forced to flee out of the building during the downpour while ceiling tiles collapsed overhead. This reporter was in that portion of the building at the time and witnessed the severe and almost instantaneous flooding once the leaking started inside. 

“I am so incredibly grateful for the army of people around me that kept my students safe and had the studios cleared of the necessities in under an hour,” owner Wendy Gardiner said. “We have had to cancel classes for at least the remainder of the week until we hopefully find a temporary space to use for our students. We have a recital coming up and we have a national competition to get to in July – we’ll find a way!” 

Aside from the ceiling and roof repairs, The Studio will need all new floors and it also appears that at least one wall will have to be demolished and rebuilt from the inside.

The contractor (Brandon) said A+ Construction has filed a claim with the insurance company and reiterated to business owners that there was no negligence on his or the company’s part.

“The forecast was clear for the next three weeks,” he said. “I had no way to know this would happen. It’s clear again so we are going to get back to work.”

He also said that the previous “fixes” to the damage on the roof consisted only of dumping buckets of tar in certain spots. “That’s a temporary fix, sure, but the water still has to go somewhere,” he said.

As it stands, Northwest Restoration has taken over the building temporarily to at least dry out the area and no customers are allowed inside. It’s estimated that clean up can begin in a few days.